Archive for the 'Undie Bomber' Tag Under 'Orange Punch' Category

Well, at least Obama said the words about the buck stopping with him when it came to the crotch bomber, but it's hardly more than a simulacrum of real accountability. And unlike the previous occupant of the White House, he's avoiding overreacting, even explicitly saying we don't need to go into siege mentality. But I listened to his long-delayed speech today and beyond a resolve to do better next time had a hard time finding much substance beyond bureaucratic boilerplate. And of course he didn't stick around for questions -- again.

The single most effective thing we could do to reduce terrorism directed at the U.S. would be to begin withdrawing troops from all Muslim countries. That would hardly guarantee quiescence, but it would make it more difficult for the terrorists to recruit suicide bombers. But of course Obama won't do that -- he's doubled down in Afghanistan, committing us to nation-building in a country that has never had and doesn't seem to want a real central government (and maybe they're not that unwise).

The undie bomber has brought to a limited amount of public attention the terrorist organization Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which allegedly trained him and supplied him with explosives. This piece from the New Republic is mnore informative than ideological and offers a fair amount of background on the outfit, operating most actively in Yemen, but perhaps with Saudi Arabia as the real eventual desired target. Yemen is a good place for jihadists largely because it has essentially ungoverned areas where the titular government has never even claimed to reign supreme. Also, it is ruled essentially by a family trying to establish a dynasty but facing some opposition among the ruling elite and a secession movement. As a result, al-Qaida is not a major priority.

The U.S. gobblement (I couldn't resist, Observer) has done what it always does when confronted with a new problem it didn't anticipate -- thrown our money at the wobbly government in Yemen. But outright intervention would almost certain be enormously counterproductive; the Yemeni government, while glad to accept the bucks (it isn't all that oil-rich) doesn't want to be seen as a U.S. puppet and while conducting a couple of raids on probable al-Qaida strongholds is simultaneously distancing itself from the U.S. Not a promising prospect.

I'm not really all that upset that the president took so long to address the failed Christmas undie bomber, and that when he did so he was pretty vague on what is to be done. I only wish he had made more fun of him as an obvious amateur who couldn't even blow his own groin up. Terrorists gain prestige and recruiting ability when we treat them as a grave threat, disrupt our way of life and mobilize all kinds of resources against them. Obviously, this guy got onto a plane with explosives, which represents a government failure, so he can't be dismissed as a complete joke. But he failed. What he was trying to do turned out not to be so easy. And ordinary citizen-passengers, not the mighty "intelligence community" that spends $50 billion a year of our money mostly on not succeeding, were the key to thwarting this doofus.

Of course government failure leads to more reliance on government rather than an acknowledgment that ordinary citizens are a big key to success. Almost all the thwarted airplane attempts were thwarted by ordinary citizens, not brave federales. Yet the government, the culture and most of the media keep encouraging the impression that only government can save us. As if.

It would have been nice if the president had treated us as adults and acknowledged that no system can provide absolute security, even one as nimble as Obama would like to imagine the government could be if it would only get its act together. As long as we occupy Muslim countries militarily or dominate them politically terrorists will keep coming after us, and no matter how draconian the safeguards, one is likely to succeed eventually. I suspect we're fortunate that they're not more professional.